pugilist

noun

1. One who fights with their fists, especially a professional prize fighter; a boxer.

   “I laugh and hoot at ye, ye cricket-players, ye pugilists, ye deaf Burkes and blind Bendigoes!”

   “In 1925, boxer shorts were unleashed on the world: loose-fitting underwear for men, featuring an elastic waistband inspired by the shorts worn by boxers. It was underwear for the inner pugilist.”

2. (figuratively)One who engages in rhetorical attacks, for himself or on behalf of another.

   “President Obama's style leaves liberal activists in the Democratic Party cold. They prefer a pugilist fighting for principle over a pragmatist agreeing to compromises. Can the president reignite the enthusiasm of his party's core supporters by November?”

   “Mr. Patel has a long record as a fierce pugilist for Mr. Trump, pushing some of the pro-Trump orbit’s most dubious theories[.]”

   “President Nixon tried to make leaders of communist bloc countries believe he was a volatile, irrational pugilist.”